Oil firm executive charged with smuggling

MANILA, Philippines –  The Bureau of Customs (BOC) filed oil smuggling charges against an official of oil firm Filpride Resources Inc. before the Department of Justice (DOJ) yesterday for allegedly failing to pay the correct duties and taxes amounting to P400 million.

In a statement, the BOC said Filpride, listed in the country’s top 1,000 corporations, entered the industry in 1985 and since then has been a leading independent oil industry player. Filpride is based at the Subic Freeport Zone in Olongapo City.

BOC Commissioner Angelito Alvarez said among those included in the charge sheet are Filpride reports and compliance officer Rosario Tolentino Mamaril and unidentified BOC employees who allowed Filpride to allegedly evade paying the correct value-added tax (VAT).

Alvarez said that based on documents provided by SGS, Filpride reportedly imported on Nov. 11, 2010 a total of 102,416 barrels of crude oil from Thailand with a dutiable value of P408,885,827.

However, the BOC’s Run After The Smugglers (RATS) Group found that Filpride declared it imported only 80,300 barrels of crude oil for which it paid P76,006,921 VAT.

BOC Deputy Commissioner Gregorio Chavez, concurrently the executive director of the RATS Group, claimed Filpride did not declare 22,500 barrels of crude oil with a dutiable value of P57,228,111. The under-declaration resulted in the non-payment of P6,915,755 VAT.

For violating the terms of its customs accreditation privileges, Chavez said “Filpride should not only be asked to pay the unpaid value-added tax of P6,915,755. It should also be made to pay P408,855,827 which corresponds with the total dutiable value of the entire shipment as the latter should have been forfeited in favor of the government.”

Alvarez said they discovered the alleged irregularity in Filpride’s importation when the RATS team obtained an SGS report attesting that Filpride’s shipment was divided into five parcels declared in five separate bills of lading that did not tally with the four import entries filed by the company with the BOC.

“Filpride’s modus operandi was to break their shipment into five parcels covered by different bills of lading but pay value-added tax for only four parcels,” he said.

The BOC chief also instructed Chavez to look into all the previous importations of Filpride.